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Draconian Australian Cybercrime Bill would allow the Attorney General to hand over Australian data to US security services on request, with no subsequent oversight on how long that data might be retained, or how it might be used.

Distributors lose their rights when they violate GPLv2, but the Free Software Foundation is more forgiving in its license enforcement to encourage continued participation in the free software community. GPLv3 has improved termination provisions to codify this approach, giving developers one more reason to upgrade.

Even if you have done nothing wrong, the government agencies examining your files have no contractual obligation to you to keep them safe, nor even to get rid of all their copies once they've determined you're not guilty or that they pulled the wrong party's data.

(Article from The Economist) AMERICA is still in denial... Innovation and invention is the key to continuing gains in prosperity. ... (Yet) This recent episode of Planet Money, "When Patents Attack", is an informative and entertaining primer on the way America's patent system squelches competition, slows innovation, and enables egregious predation through the legal system.

In 2009, the court's IT department announced it would release the system as open source under the GPLv3. This summer, it was expected that OpenJustitia would be released to allow other courts to make use of it.

It is particularly troublesome because the laws designed to protect the private data of consumers from government access are insufficient and out-of-date — creating a perfect storm for government abuse.

That same data would also be available to civil litigants in private lawsuits--whether it's the RIAA trying to identify downloaders, a company trying to uncover and retaliate against an anonymous critic, or a divorce lawyer looking for dirty laundry

[…] So let me phrase this more clearly: Somebody, under oath is stating at the Supreme Court, that GPL-Licensed software (which the Linux kernel definitely is), has no copyright restrictions? And that any derived work is the sole property of whoever created the derivative? What kind of pot are they smoking in Mauritius?

Today I'm happy to share something we've been working on for a little while: “How to choose a license for your own work” is a comprehensive set of license recommendations for new projects. This page explains what factors are important to consider when making licensing decisions, and suggests specific licenses for different scenarios.